The Barrier of Shared Culture
A friend of mine told me she had just started to read Story Structure Architect: A Writer's Guide to Building Dramatic Situations and Compelling Characters and thought it might be helpful to her, so I took a look.
Apart from the list-making, prescriptive and formulaic approach of this how-to manual, almost all of the examples the author cites are not books at all - but films. What's more, Hollywood films. I ask myself: how can citing Hollywood film be helpful to someone who is setting out to write a book? Film (especially American mainstream film) is unsubtle, lacks interiority - almost by definition, and mostly requires a neat and preferably happy ending. Or at the very least, the dread 'closure'.
Has this author not read anything? When she very occasionally does mention a book she misunderstands the core of it. Mostly though, it's films - even where the film is based on a novel, it's the film (with its necessarily simplified view of the world)that gets the mention. Crazy! No thanks.
Apart from the list-making, prescriptive and formulaic approach of this how-to manual, almost all of the examples the author cites are not books at all - but films. What's more, Hollywood films. I ask myself: how can citing Hollywood film be helpful to someone who is setting out to write a book? Film (especially American mainstream film) is unsubtle, lacks interiority - almost by definition, and mostly requires a neat and preferably happy ending. Or at the very least, the dread 'closure'.
Has this author not read anything? When she very occasionally does mention a book she misunderstands the core of it. Mostly though, it's films - even where the film is based on a novel, it's the film (with its necessarily simplified view of the world)that gets the mention. Crazy! No thanks.
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